How was/is 2010 for you?

[Quillan]

Just been doing the accounts and its not good news, we seem to be down about 35% on last year. I then analysed occupancy by nationality, I like to do this for where to advertise next year. British guests were down by half but the French are down by more than half (about 45%). Spanish, American and Australians were up a bit. My sister-in-law lives down in Spain and she tells us that whilst many Brits didn't holiday there this year the amount of French was exceptionally high, probably the most for years. Everywhere you looked apparently there were French plated cars although most of the French went self catering.

The only reason I can come up is climate and money. The weather here has been very hot but not consistent with quite a bit of rain in the first half of the holiday season. I know from experience that the French tend to watch the weather (its almost like an obsession) and book nearer the time, following the weather. Unfortunately the French weatherman has got it very wrong a couple of times when forecasting in our region, predicting rain when we have been sitting in sunshine without a cloud in the sky.

Walking through Carcassonne and looking in travel agent windows there were some very excellent deals to be had in both Morocco and Spain. So what with the much publicised 'crisis' I guess French people looked for the biggest 'bang' they could get with their 'bucks' and with guaranteed sunshine. Last time we saw nearly such a big drop was in 2008 followed by the second best year ever in 2009 (2007 was the best ever) which we couldn't quite believe as we were preparing for the worse. I just wondered if anyone else has done any figures yet and what their results have been.

[baypond]

Anecdotal evidence I have from colleagues at work is that UK residents have been heading in their masses to Devon and Cornwall. It may be worth googling the tourist offices to see just how much higher numbers are there. I think people found 2009 expensive in GBP terms in France and so booked at home for 2010 before the exchange rate came back. Giles

[Ariège Author]

We've just completed the sale on our auberge and gites but up to the end of August, we were having our best year ever in 6 years of trading.

The area has just been classified as a PNR (National Park) so maybe that helped as the majority of our guests are French.

Hopefully 2011 will be a better year for you Quillan.

[NormanH]

The key phrase round here has been 'Fréquentation bonne, consommation mauvaise' .

That is to say that the numbers over all have held up, though mainly in low cost options such as camp sites, but nobody is spending on things like meals out.

In the village where I have a little second place the general estimate on takings is - 40%

[Quillan]

Funny enough Norm I did notice that many of the restaurants round here went back to closing one whole day and one evening a week during the season. Some said it was too expensive to stay open

[Babbles]

A very rough overview would be that the ash cloud kill April, May and even a bit of June, then its been good, people staying longer (just what we want!) but mid October looks the pits , last year was good but we had a lot of house hunters but this year we've only had 2 couples looking to see if they like the area. I'm also not sure how Ryanair have cut back their flights over the autumn / winter as a really cheap flight does encourage people to take a mini break. We've had a real mix bag of countries people have come from , slightly more Aussies than expected but the usual Amercian / Canadian Northern European who book a reasonable amount of time in advance and a lot of disappointed English as they have left it too late and we're full but hopefully they'll fill up October!

i was amazed to hear that some of the up-market beach clubs were packing up for the season, I'm sure it was October last year before they closed up for the season, seems mad to me when its still 25 and clear blue skies

[betoulle]

For us in the B&B this 3rd quarter of 2010 has been our best ever - have taken more in these three months than during the whole of the previous 18........mainly long stay of 1 wk or more & mainly from UK, with the French being a close second...a few Dutch, Belgians & Aussies.  We were hit badly by the ash cloud fiasco with cancellations in April, May & into June......& sadly lost some of our regular guests to terminal illness - problem with appealing to the over 50s.  Have just had a houseful for the Angouleme Race weekend & then later this week we are accommodating the Deux-Sevres Pompiers for the conference in Angouleme. but after this next weekend we have no bookings till next April - normal for us.  Will have a few French around All Saints Day + occasional business travellers, but far less house hunters over the last 3 years, though have a few regulars working on 'projects'.....  In the gites this has been our best ever season - fully booked for both gites from easter till mid-October & once again a very high percentage of repeat bookings for 2011.  Looking forward to a much needed rest after serving breakfast every morning since early June...........& to closing the pool for the year......

[Wilko]

"Looking forward to a much needed rest after serving breakfast every morning since early June...........& to closing the pool for the year...... "

You betcha !!!

W

[mayday86]

we've had (and are still having) our best ever season. Australians, Germans and mostly English - fewer French this year but, for the first time ever, we have taken non- repeating bookings for next year already.

feb half-term, easter and 2 weeks in July already booked and deposits paid. We have 3 more weeks booked between now and end of October.

I know the volcano affected bookings - MOH was part of a walking group of 16 going to the Carcasonne area for 10 days; the trip had to be cancelled because only the 2 men who live in France could actually get there. it's been re-booked for next May - they will certainly spend some money in the region.

[Quillan]

I am very glad to hear that some are having the best year ever.

I can say that the first 3 to 4 years of our business were absolutely phenomenal with growth rates varying between 35 to 46% each year. Many people did warn me that this was normal as your advertising clicked in better, word got around and in general you learn how to best market your business after which growth would then slow down and seasonal trends would be more noticeable.

I guess, like many others I have met 'along the way' I thought that they might be pulling my leg, winding me or just plain jealous. Actually keeping detailed information on all my bookings including nationalities etc along with number of bookings refused due to being full for the last 10 years they were right. Whilst we were full in August this year we only turned 27 bookings down compared to 53 last year. Its just a shame I couldn't convert them in to bookings latter on in the year.

We are now full for the next 10 days with English walkers although the weather has just changed, it's been raining and whilst it's now stopped more is on the way and the sky is overcast and will remain so till next Sunday. I just hope they bring their 'wets' with them. Still it's an opportunity to make some money on the food front (ever the optimist). We now have some bookings for October, more than last year but still not that many. Lucky for us we have been able to save money every year (not always as much as we would have liked) which means we can get through to next year without a problem.

It will be interesting to see what the French do this Christmas and New Year. Whilst we are normally closed over this period last year we had more enquiries for this period than any other year.

[betoulle]

forgot to say that despite having our best ever summer season, like Quillan overall it has been a bad year, obviously not at year end yet, but overall better than last year which was 33% down on the previous 4 years.  Dependant on final figure at year end will be approximately 25% down on our best ever B&B year, BUT the gites side of our business continues to improve each year - that part of our business is 100% from the UK, & payable in sterling.  Have noticed over last 3 years a marked reduction in the number of gite guests eating out & many pack the car with food to bring with them.  Now we have a 'coin cuisine' many more of our B&B guests this year have eaten on their terrace in the evenings - also helped by a fantastic new traiteur who has opened in the village.  Our regulars say they have noticed that the cost of everything has gone up over the last 3 years & not just due to the exchange rate.  Our local restaurant owners though have all commented that the majority of their clientele in the season is from tourists/2nd home owners & far less French eating out in last 2 years - both locals & tourists.  For a couple of local restaurants (French owned) they are being kept going by their regular Brit & Dutch clientele.

Like Mayday we are receiving enquiries already for 2011 from new B&B guests & more than usual number of early enquiries for gites.  You just have to take each year as it comes - every one is a surprise we find...take nothing for granted....

 

[Babbles]

One thing I have noticed is that some nationalities we struggle to convert to a booking, notably Spanish I think it could be that as we only have suites and they think they can fill it dormitory style with 100s of kids, we don't take under 12's and will only put in 1 extra bed, no sleeping on the sofa! We're glad we changed to not accepting under 12's a lot less damage and sticky finger marks and before we did we worried that it would kill July and August but it didn't

[water rat]

Sorry about your year Quillan,hope things pick-up. It looks like you've been scuppered by the weather which in our case has been freakishly glorious this year and continues. Our April May and June was as expected ,then at the beginning of July we had no bookings whatsoever!Talk about last minuters this year! Most of ours have been made within a few days of arriving and many on the same day. We're a good spot for Parisians who don't want to leave unless the weather's guaranteed and we're less than 3 hours away. have also had a few from Orleons and Tours ,not far at all. Also the southerners who have been escaping the tourists. All french with a sprinkling of Brits and Belgians. By the end of Aug we had topped the whole of 2009!

There's no way one can predict what will happen ,but the weather plays a big part.

We had a holiday today.Went out riding for the first time since April then a lovely swim in the local lake which is v unusual for this time of year.

[Etoile]

I have to say we've had a very good season here in the Charente and the fourth letting room we converted has already paid for itself. A lot of French visitors and repeat English, being just off the A10 people frequently stop with us on their drive south then return on their way back up.

We have also had a healthy trade in longer stayers and it is always welcome being able to give the washing and ironing machines a rest. Alas, we are now full of insurance trainees until Christmas Eve when we will leg it up to Calais once we've cleared away the breakfasts.

We spent zero on advertising this year. Not complaining.

[Lachouette]

This is the first evening we've had off for ages and we can turn the alarm clock off tomorrow and have a bit of a lie in! In this 3rd quarter of the year we've done better than we've ever done, and have had more longer stays, fewer 1 nighters and served more meals than usual so we're well pleased but very tired.

2009 wasn't as bad as we expected but certainly wasn't easy or our best year, and I'm sure by the time we get to the end of the year this will turn out to be the best of the seven years we've been doing chambres et table d'hôtes.

Jan

[Etoile]

Here Here. We're full again tonight, not bad for late September, and we turned down a request for two rooms tonight. Even the October pages of the diary have a bit of ink on them, unknown in previous years. People frequently blame the supposed recession for a downturn in business, but then everything shakes down: The Mini garage gets the Ferrari drivers, the Hitachi dealer sees a few Bang & Olufson types, and maybe in our B&B's we get a few high-flyers who cannot afford to fly so high this year.